Right-winger John Hawkins has a post up about building a blog audience. He’s averaging 6,000 hits a day. I don’t know how long he’s been blogging, but that’s not bad. Not bad at all. John writes:
So don’t just take my word for it, listen to one Drew Curtis, the man who runs Fark, a page that has more than a million readers per day. Here’s a slightly edited transcript of a conversation we had on ICQ, back in Feb of 2003…
Drew Curtis: All of 1999 we got 50,000 pageviews. These days we get 5,000,000 per week (**Note that the numbers are higher now**) those are no BS numbers either. Everytime I ask someone how many page views they get, they automatically multiply by 5-10 times
John Hawkins: 50,000 for the whole year? It was basically the same page back then too right?
Drew Curtis: Yup. Check out the archives, it’s saved. Yeah 50k for the whole year. But think about it, why would a page written from scratch as someone’s personal homepage be any higher? I thought 50k was a freakin avalanche.
John Hawkins: Oh — I know — I’ve been though it myself — but a lot of people think they’re going to create a web page and then boom — two months later they’re going to be pulling 10k people a day.
Drew Curtis: Yeah I think just about everyone does. I get emails from folks all day. If you don’t stick to it for at least two years straight day in day out it won’t take off.
So all you conservative bloggers out there, take Drew’s advice. Stick to it for at least two years straight and contribute money to RWN…
I wrote about this last month in response to a fellow blogger’s disenchantment with blogging because his hit count was low. Here’s an excerpt:
Before I started this blog, I wasn’t much of a blog reader. I read only one, a collaborative blog, because a friend joined it.
I went in with low expectations and was very flattered when one or two commenters stopped by. One of the advantages I had was I didn’t know about the big blogs that got 20+ comments and thousands of hits per day. After eight months in “business”, I average 350-400 hits per day; I got 500+ hits a few times, though I can’t remember for which posts. I appreciate every one of them.
You never know who’s reading your blog. Imagine my surprise when I found out that someone like Michelle Malkin was reading. And yesterday, I got a call from an editor I worked with once at the Philadelphia Inquirer. They do a weekly blog showcase and wanted permission to excerpt part of the Kerry post on abortion, particularly this paragraph: “Our laws are grounded in moral absolutes, whether secularists think so or not. I don’t know if Kerry believes abortion is murder…”
Having a purpose for blogging definitely helps. Mine was to comment daily from a Christian point of view. The blog is also a central location for my columns and articles, and a quick way for friends to find out what I’m up to.
My first piece of advice for bloggers trying to build a readership is to blog because you like doing it.
I advised him to submit his blog to directories and search engines and join various blog carnivals, such as Carnival of the Vanities, Christian Carnival, Blogs For Bush Carnival, etc.
I market my column (though I should be doing much more), so I marketed my blog. Taking the time to comment on other blogs is very important. It not only helps build community, but it’s an opportunity to leave your URL on someone else’s site. You just might be “discovered” by one of the big boys.
Blog because you like (dare I say love) it. I’ve been writing a bi-weekly column for over two years, and when I started blogging eight months ago on Blog*Spot, my expectations were very low. I had no ambitions of building an audience. I just needed an outlet to do daily rants, and blogging seemed like the natural choice.
Since I started the new blog about three weeks ago with my own domain name, my hits have increased modestly. While John’s 6,000 average is relatively awesome, I’m astoundingly grateful for 1,000.
I’ve learned a few basic things about blogging that work for me:
1. Post at least one interesting item a day at least five days a week. I sometimes take weekends off.
2. Delete comments that cross the line, whatever that is for you, and don’t concern yourself about bone-headed accusations of “preaching to the choir” (So what if you are?). I allowed some leeway in the beginning because I was “new.” But no more. I have no patience for it now.
3. Delete trackbacks that lead to an insulting or sarcastic post about you. My rule for such nitwits: No free publicity on my bandwidth!
That’s all I want to say at the moment, but if you want more advice, you know where to reach me. I blog because I love to write, must write. That’s how I’ve built an audience. My sage advice to any would-be blogger is…just blog.
I almost forgot. Speaking of carnivals, check out this week’s Christian Carnival and Carnival of the Vanities.
